Sunday, August 24, 2008

We Can't Because...

We just can’t…

Finish that sentence with1. clean the house because it’s too big (J) or organize it because it’s too small (P).2. mow the lawn, rake the grass, bag the grass, distribute the grass in the garden rows because we’ve worn ourselves out thinking about cleaning.3. weed the garden, pick the ten thousand ripe tomatoes, can the ten thousand ripe tomatoes, or eat one more zucchini because the garden is just about done producing anyhow and besides, some of those weeds are supposed to be edible.4. do both loads of wash in one morning because to hang two loads on the line requires twice the energy.5. iron those blouses that have been hanging around waiting to be ironed because once they’re worn just one time, they’ll need washing and ironing again.6. make a big dinner because cereal and milk is just so much easier.7. clean the porch (or the garage or the closets) because next year they’ll look exactly as they do now.8. entertain because the thought of making large quantities of food and then cleaning up large quantities of dishes make us think of napping.9. make the bed, because, speaking of napping, it’s what we like to do best in the middle of the afternoon and what’s the point of making a bed THEN?10. do much of anything. It’s just too exhausting!

J and I have discussed this lack of energy a LOT. J has proposed the theory that now we’re at this age, we understand that we’re perfectly capable of doing all these things so we don’t have to. We don’t have to prove anything or demonstrate our abilities. So, though all these things need doing constantly and unendingly, there’s no need to really DO them because we know, should the need arise, we could rise to meet it.

I like that theory but I’ve put my lack of energy down to, well, a lack of energy. It’s not boredom based, it’s not based on laziness, it’s tied to everything else we talk about on this blog – body deterioration. It’s like our bodies are saying, “I know how to do this, I just can’t right now.”